As the Internet begins to reach the nooks and crannies of the world, an ISU professor is getting closer to reaching his goal of increased readership of a Web site he created more than a decade ago.

Geoffrey Sauer, an assistant professor of English, started the EServer (www.Eserver.org) in 1990 with 11 other graduate students at Carnegie Mellon University, located in Pittsburgh, to grant students free access to a wide range of academic literature. Sauer said they shared a portable office and hooked a small office computer to the Internet to begin sharing text.

From those humble beginnings, EServer has become the most viewed humanities Web site on the Internet according to Alexa.com, a site dedicated to tracking Web site popularity.

Sauer said every month 1.5 million people come to visit the site, which averages out to approximately 50,000 readers per day.

“We understood the Internet represented a significant new opportunity,” Sauer said. “But I think I can speak for all of us that we never expected this level of visibility.”

Sauer said there are 45 collections that are managed by their own editorial teams. He said the group of graduate students was concerned about the price of books after the 1970s, and the site was meant to help people develop the habit of leisure reading in spite of the increase in prices.

“Today, as always, we still seek to publish quality writings in the arts and humanities, free of charge to readers at the university,” he said.

The EServer is followed by H-net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online (www.h-net.org) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (www.neh.gov) site in Alexa.com’s rankings.

Robert Cherny, vice president of teaching and learning of H-net, said he is not familiar with EServer. He said he could not claim H-net is better than any other site out there because of the way it operates.

Melanie Shell-Weiss, staff editor of H-net, said unlike Eserver.org, which focuses primarily on publishing and discussion of these works, H-net’s goal is much broader.

“We also have an extensive reviews project, which publishes hundreds of book reviews each year,” Shell-Weiss said. “And we host one of the largest academic job guides in the humanities and social sciences.”

Sauer said the actual EServer is located in his office on the fourth floor of Ross Hall, but, he said he would like to raise $20,000 to move it to the third floor. He said the site is incorporated in Iowa as a non-profit organization and receives no regular budget or commitment from Iowa State.

“We’re always looking for funding, to permit us to provide faster and more reliable service, as well as funding to support the purchase of software for new and emerging technologies,” he said.

Sauer said only a couple of problems have emerged, but they are not critical. He said he is always looking for student volunteers and interns who are interested in working for the site.